Why Spider-Man Needs the Hyphen

This comic by Metro Kitty explains why Spider-Man needs a hyphen but Superman and Batman don’t. It does raise another issue. Are people actually afraid of bats? Batman is supposed to have chosen the bat because it’s something that strikes fear in the heart of men, I don’t think I know very many people that are afraid of bats, they are so cute:

How could you be afraid of that? Spiders on the other hand…

I’m not afraid of spiders myself, sure some of them creep me out a little I’d I’d never hug a Black Widow, but they seem to elicit fear an awful lot more than bats do…